Transcript of AE 942 - The Goss Gladiators, Footy, and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.mp3

G'day, you mob. Pete here, and this is another episode of Aussie English, the number one place for anyone and everyone wanting to learn Australian English. So, today I have a Goss' episode for you where I sit down with my old man, my father, Ian Smissen, and we talk about the week's news, whether locally down under here in Australia or non-locally overseas in other parts of the world.

Okay, and we sometimes also talk about whatever comes to mind. Right. If we can think of something interesting to share with you guys related to us or Australia, we also talk about that in The Goss'. So, these episodes are specifically designed to try and give you content about many different topics where we're obviously speaking in English and there are multiple people having a natural and spontaneous conversation in English.

So, it is particularly good to improve your listening skills. In order to complement that, though, I really recommend that you join the podcast membership or the Academy membership at AussieEnglish.com.au, where you will get access to the full transcripts of these episodes, the PDFs, the downloads, and you can also use the online PDF reader to read and listen at the same time.

Okay, so if you really, really want to improve your listening skills fast, get the transcript, listen and read at the same time, keep practising and that is the quickest way to level up your English. Anyway, I've been rabbiting on a bit. I've been talking a bit. Let's just get into this episode, guys. Smack the bird and let's get into it.

Dad.

Pete.

What's going on?

What's going on- We're doing Noah speak, are we?

What's going on? scoming.

What's going on? Yeah. Pa's scoming. Vovô's scoming.

I found that so cute recently with him learning English and Portuguese, just the way in which he obviously hears words or interprets words. So, like with that dad's scoming, he doesn't realise its dad is coming that's being contracted. He just thinks it's dad and scoming. Dad's scoming.

Well, Dad's coming, we say it in one long word.

Well, that's why he hears "dad's scoming".

He's passing it in, you know, the syllables in a different place, that's all. So, he is creating words out of it, but he doesn't know where the actual passing should be...

Well, and the way in which he puts phrases together, too, with his own grammar of like dada carro, like Dad's car or dad car...

Yeah. Dad car...

...Effectively...

...Car.

And it makes sense, you know, he hasn't worked out the possessive- What would you call that? The possessive- What is it called where you have- German has a lot of them, cases. Right.

Yeah, it's possessive case where you actually put the "'s" on the end of something.

Yeah, English got rid of all its cases hundreds of years ago, but...

Except the possessive one.

Yeah, well that's it. So, what's been going on?

Not a lot, really. No. Went to the football yesterday, which was good fun.

Yeah. How was that? Just by yourself with all your mates?

Just by myself with all my mates. Yeah. I got there- Because I drove up to Melbourne and did some photographs for the...

Moustache is driving me nuts.

Yeah. And you got grot on the beard as well.

Yeah.

Yeah. So, I drove up to Melbourne in the morning and took some photographs of some of the old family sites for the family history book that I'm writing...

You keep plugging this, Dad. You gonna sell it to the listeners?

Yeah, I'll sell it to the listeners. My family history would be really interesting to about six people.

All the listeners who are related to me...

Yeah, exactly.

Future Noah.

And yeah, I'd finished that. And then it started sort of drizzling rain and I thought there was no point going off and doing something else. So, I just drove into town and...

You were going to do some photography, weren't you? I think that's what Mum said...

Yeah, I was actually photographing some of the houses that my great grandparents lived in, and I was going to photograph the houses that my mother grew up in. But they are so changed now, they've been renovated so much. The houses still exist, they haven't been pulled down, but they're unrecognisable from what I remember as a child.

So, it's sort of pointless taking a photograph of this is the house that no longer looks like the house that my mother lived in.

I had- I guess I had it in my head that you were going to be doing some street photography or something.

No, no...

As well as or after...

...Just a driver around, oh, there's the house, here's the address and go click... Yeah, and this so- that had just been parked in West Melbourne and walked down to the football and I got there about an hour and 20 minutes before the game started, and it was just sort of drizzly right outside and because it's in the indoor stadium, I thought, oh, better off sitting inside. So, when I got in there, there must have been about a hundred people in there.

So, you know, I took a photograph of me with- And sent it to the family group with just my head and thousands of empty seats.

So, was it packed later on or not at all?

It was about half full, I think there was about 27,000 there, which is almost exactly half full. It's a 55,000-seat stadium.

It does always blow my mind, you know, we watch these movies and TV shows about like Rome, where you see people in the Coliseum and gladiators, you know, fighting lions and slaves and other gladiators and everything. And that was how they sort of got their entertainment back then. It's so funny that 2,000 years later, we have the same...

It's the same principle...

...set up...

Yep.

...Of this huge stadium. How do we get as many people as possible to be able to see this one sport and spectate?

And effectively, it's a battle between two bunches of people.

Yeah.

You know, it's not Christians fighting lions anymore, but it's, you know, two groups of people who are competing in a semi well defined sport. AFL's always, you know, for those who aren't familiar with it, it's sort of difficult to understand because it's not like any other sport. But once you do know, it's really good. So, that was fun.

You wonder how those things started, though, right? Like how those first team sports began. There were some interesting things that I was reading up on, I think about the Mayans. It may have been the Aztecs or the Mayans, but effectively those huge civilisations that they had in Central and South America, what, it would have been up and till the period of Columbus going to America after which it sort of all fell.

But for the last, you know, before that, whatever that was 400 years ago, they were around for hundreds and hundreds of years. And they had these huge team-based sports that I think were similar to things like hockey and soccer.

Yeah.

And your kind of like, how on earth... Who were the first people to come up with team-based sports? Because you would imagine back in the day thousands of years ago when you were hunter gatherers, you were in tribes, small groups of people. And like the indigenous people in Australia, you don't really hear too much about them ever having played games, let alone team sports...

Although...

...It's a luxury. Right.

...There is a lot of sort of legend around the history of Australian football that it may well have come from an indigenous game.

Yeah.

Because it's as old as any other football. It's not like it evolved from soccer. Somebody, you know, rugby evolved from soccer because some school kid picked up the ball and ran with it and everybody went, oh, this might make a cool game.

At least that's what we reckon.

That's the legend.

Yeah.

And, you know, so it sort of evolved out of one, but so it evolved at the same time. Melbourne Football Club, which is an Australian football club, is the oldest football club in the world. It's older than any soccer club, any other football club in the world.

I didn't know that.

Yeah. And Geelong Football Club is the second oldest because there's not much point having one football club, you need to play against someone.

It's funny, isn't it? Because so many people will always tell you AFL footy isn't the real football. You shouldn't call it football; soccer is the real football. And it's not called soccer, it's football. And you're like, obviously now AFL is potentially even older than soccer, at least officially.

...People playing soccer. But and I'm sure there were clubs around then. Melbourne football club was not the first football club around, I'm sure, but it's the oldest existing one.

Yeah.

So...

I'll have to look into that. The origin of some of these...

Yeah.

...Group based sport...

...I think...

...I can imagine it's a- It was a luxury. You would have had games, you would have had things that you could do with one another to pass the time, to sharpen your skills as young kids.

I think that's it. Part of it has come from, you know, let's just- Either parents inventing games for their kids to play or kids just making it up, you know, you get a bunch of kids together and, oh, look, here's something round and rolls. Well, can we kick it? Yeah.

Let's chase it.

Let's chase it. Yeah. Or I can hit this thing with a stick. Well, if you grab a stick and you try and hit it as well, let's see what happens.

I bet I can hit it further than you.

Exactly. So, I think there's- A lot of those sort of games have evolved out of just kids making stuff up. But I think from the other end of it, too, once they become sort of recognised games, then I'm sure there would have been, you know, my little tribe, you know, comes across your little tribe and says, hey, you want to put your 5 blokes against my 5 blokes or 20 or 50 and see, you know, just to see if we can do it.

So, it becomes that sort of mock battles.

It could have been that sort of thing I guess with the corroborees in indigenous Australian groups. Again, I'm speaking totally out of ignorance, I'm sure...

But not every indigenous Australians, you know, indigenous people all around the world.

Or the Africans as well, I know a lot of tribes in Africa will gather together to do things like compete against one another or, you know, trading things or even looking for partners, wives and husbands. They come together in big, you know, annual or monthly or whatever it is, group celebrations. And I guess that's what would have happened with the corroboree.

And maybe gaming, too, would have been part of bringing everyone together, as well as competing in a non-violent way.

Yeah.

...Originally would have been, do you reckon there was just, you know, two tribes and they were fighting one another, and they were like, it would be really fun if we could do this without killing each other.

Yeah. So, let's throw a ball into it, see who can kick it the furthest.

That's it. Yeah...

...They'll kick it back the other way.

Let's not poke holes in one another, we can do this and then play again tomorrow.

Yeah. So yeah. So, I went to the football and the other interesting thing is that it was announced, and I wasn't aware of it until I was there. It was announced yesterday morning that there are now a million AFL club members in Australia. So, each club has paid memberships and there are now a million and you look at it and go, what does that number mean?

And there's just over 25 million people in Australia, so 4% of the entire population of the country are paid members of 18 AFL clubs. So, that sort of is- Sort of- I think that demonstrates how obsessive Australians are with sport, you know, in particular football, so.

Why do you think that AFL has never completely swamped Australia and sort of reached, you know, the threshold of being the sport that everyone loves in Australia and vice versa? Rugby hasn't done the inverse because obviously, for those of you who don't know, AFL is very much a south...

Southern.

...Southern part of Australia, kind of sport. There's obviously teams in places like, you know, New South Wales and Queensland. But by and large, those states are...

Rugby League.

...Much more interested in rugby league and have a larger following there. Rugby has- And union and league have teams in places like Victoria. But by and large, it's AFL that everyone goes to see, not the rugby.

Yeah.

Why do you think there's that break?

Well, I think- Well, initially, I'm sure it just came from, you know, when- Because Australian football started in Melbourne, you know, the game was effectively invented by kids in Melbourne. And I'm pretty sure, I think it was Melbourne Grammar and Scotch College paid the first ever competitive game, ironically, on the paddock that is now the MCG. So, it's sort of sacred ground, really, that-

I'm not sure it's exactly where the MCG was, but it- Or is now. But it's on that basic bit of land.

And the idea, too, at least from what I've heard, is that AFL was a sport that was effectively just used to keep people fit for cricket season in summer, right.

...Because cricket was a established sport in summer. And then it became, well, you know, we've made up this sport, so well, we'll just get our cricketers...

Too many cricketers are getting fat during winter... ...thin and fit, so they can play cricket.

Now I'm not sure how much that is a convenient story that's been wrapped around the fact that if you've got, you know, at the time, it was men, young men or boys playing cricket and you offer them something to do during winter, I'm sure they would have done it because it was entertaining to do, not just to keep fit for cricket, necessarily. But...

It's funny how they end up paired, too, I remember we having to do sports at high school. I went to Geelong College, and it was, you know, a private school and as a result, for whatever reason, private schools tend to make competing in sports mandatory.

Yeah.

So, you have to pick a sport in summer and in winter. And it seemed that a lot of the kids who played footy would play cricket and a lot of the cricketers would play footy, it would be like you pick those two. Yeah, I didn't- I always- I liked playing the sports, I didn't really like watching the sports, so cricket always made me want to kill myself because it was just too long and not much happening.

I can imagine being the bowler or being the batsman would be amazing, but anyone else there is just standing around staring. I played cricket for a while and one of the challenges with that is I was fortunately I was a bowler, and so bowlers are much more engaged in the game than batsmen are.

Yeah.

But because, you know, because at least a bowler is active while you're on the field.

The bowler doesn't have the chance of missing and not interacting with the ball, he has the ball every time.

But then, you know, we were playing- You played two-day games, effectively, you know, the notion is that your team will bat for one day and the other team will bat for the next day, even though you technically you can both bat twice, but that rarely happens in a two day game. But if you're a bowler as well, you know, we'd be fielding one on the first day and I'd get to bowl for half the day...

Yeah.

...Which is great in terms of participation, that's what you're there for. And then the next week when it's the other team's turn to bat, because I was a bowler and a pretty average batter, I often didn't get to bat at all.

So, you turn up to play cricket for the day and you sit on the sideline and you're either scoring or, you know, particularly playing in lower grades of cricket, you know, don't have official umpires, or if they do, they often don't have 2 because you have to have 2 umpires on the field. And so, they'd- You'd have 1 official umpire and then the batting team would provide the other umpire.

And so, you'd either be umpiring or scoring or just sitting around doing nothing. And I eventually looked at this and thought, this is stupid. So, I went back to playing tennis, because at least you then you knew who was gonna be playing, unless it was raining.

I think I learnt this from primary school when I- I went to, you know, recess and lunch times you'd just run down to the oval and you would- I would play cricket or footy, but it would be that thing where I remember a lot of the kids would be dying to be the bowler or be the batter and no one wanted to be a fielder.

Yeah. All you do is just- And most of the time the ball doesn't come near you, so you just stand there.

And so, it would be that thing of, okay, I'll bowl, guys, you know, and then they'd be like, alright, you've had your over, next person and they'd be like, oh, sweet, alright, I'll wait to bat. I'll be next or third next or whatever. And then you get in there and get bowled out and then you're like, yeah, fuck this, I'm out. See you, guys. I'm going to go do something else because I'm not feeling this. Screw this. Yeah, exactly.

So, it would always be that thing of like, how do we- You'd have like all these people lined up to bowl or bat, but there'd be like one person fielding.

Yeah, exactly. Whereas kids' soccer in particular is great fun to watch, little kids' soccer. I remember when you started, you sort of started soccer under 8 and...

Did I?

...Yeah. Under 8's and that basically- Because you got 2 goalkeepers who, you know, stand at each end and the ball never gets near them. So, they're just standing there getting cold and 20 other kids just running around chasing a ball. So yeah, your sort of active the whole time because you can't teach 7-year-olds tactics of, you know, you go and stand over there on the wing and when they kick it to you, you kick it over there.

There's the ball, run and get it.

He's on your team, you just took it off from your own teammate, I don't care, I just want to feel part of it.

Yeah so, yes, good old Australian sport. So, yeah, it was quite interesting to notice that, you know, that sort of million members in AFL, which is, I just sat and went- It's logical when you look at it, because obviously your average, I think the highest- The team with the highest membership is about just over 100,000 and the lowest is just under 50,000. Richmond, I think now.

Richmond has the most?

Yeah, although I think now it might actually be West Coast Eagles.

I guess they don't have much...

The whole state and only two teams, so. But yeah, so, you know, the highest teams have got 100,000 plus, the lowest around 50,000. So, if you average that out and multiply it by 18, it quickly works out to be a million. It must be pretty interesting being from those other states, too, of South Australia. Again, two teams, right? So, the Adelaide Crows and the Port Adelaide electric people...

Yeah, Port Power, the lightning...

Electric bolt. And then you've got, what, the West Coast Eagles...

And Fremantle Dockers.

...Fremantle Dockers over in Western Australia. It must be very cool being there because you obviously have effectively two choices.

Yeah. And it becomes a real sort of us and them thing. Whereas...

Whereas in Melbourne you've got how many teams?

Victoria there are 10 teams, 9 in Melbourne and 1 in Geelong.

So, you find people that like barrack for teams from all over- You don't have to be from the place...

Yeah, it's not tribal in that geographic sense. It used to be when I was a kid that, you know, if you grew up in Collingwood, you barrack for Collingwood. If you grew up in Melbourne, you know, nobody grew up in Melbourne and that was part of the problem. The city of Melbourne didn't have residents back in those days, whereas, you know, if you grew up in St Kilda, St Kilda supporter.

And the Melbourne teams in the Victorian Football League, yeah, pretty much. Well, we were also zoned to all the other districts around the city and in the state, so.

Yeah.

Yeah. Where I grew up, even though it wasn't close to Melbourne or St Kilda particularly, you know, our zone, the suburb I lived in, the zone- Recruiting zone was split down the middle between Melbourne and St Kilda. So, most of my friends were Melbourne or St Kilda supporters. I ended up being an Essendon supporter for bizarre reasons, but...

Just the original hipster going against the grain.

Yeah, exactly, going against the grain. It was more a bit of good fortune that my first football game that I ever went to, my uncle took me, I was four and a half. And so, I didn't know anything about it. But hey, you know, going to the football, yeah, I'm going to the football. Watched it on television once, you know, that'll do.

And it was Melbourne playing Essendon and he was a Melbourne supporter, so I sort of went there going, oh, well, we'll be barracking for Melbourne, supporting Melbourne and Essendon won. So, by the time halfway through the game Essendon was winning, I became an Essendon supporter. Yeah. And then that year they won the premiership, so that sealed it. The only game I'd ever seen they won and then they ended up winning the whole thing for that year.

So, you know, nearly 60 years later, I'm still an Essendon supporter.

You've got to tell the story about my sister and how she decided to go for North Melbourne.

Oh, yeah. Well, that was in 1992, and it was about fourth or fifth round for the year. I took you to the football, it was actually Essendon playing West Coast Eagles at the MCG. And I took you, you were 5 and you decided that you wanted to buy an Essendon flag while we were there. So, we bought an Essendon flag and every time they kicked a goal, you're waving the flag and cheering and carrying on, and came home very proud of the flag.

And then Annie had been on and on and on at me for the rest of the year, for another 4 or 5 months because we went early in the season about, I want to go to the football, I want to- she's three years old, you know...

You don't even like the football.

...Taking your 3-year-old daughter to the football all day. Yeah, sitting at the football's fine, going to the local football and you sit there is fine, if you get sick of it, you come home. But I want to go to the toilet...

This hits home now, considering Anika, my sister has a 3-year-old daughter.

Yeah.

And I can't imagine her ever putting her hand up and saying, yeah, let's go to the footy.

So, in the end, a friend of ours who also had a 3-year-old daughter, he and I decided it was the last round of the year.

Hi, Ralph.

Yeah. And he and I decided, well, if we're going to do this, then we might as well do it in pairs, because then if you need a toilet stop or whatever, you can at least have somebody to mind the seats and all the other paraphernalia you bring with the 3-year-old. And so, we went, and she decided that she was going to be a Bulldog supporter because she like the Bulldogs, that year she'd just seen them.

So, this is Footscray?

Footscray. Footscray Football Club, which is now their brand name is the Western Bulldogs.

Yeah.

And so, she was a, you know, big- I'm going to be a Bulldogs, I want to support the Bulldogs. All right. Well, fortunately, the Bulldogs were playing and her friend, the other 3-year-old, her grandfather used to play for North Melbourne. So, their family were North Melbourne supporters.

Yeah.

And so, we thought, oh, well, it's the Bulldogs playing North Melbourne. That's it. Ralph, you and me take the kids and we'll go. And we got off- Annie and I got off the train at Richmond Station, which is right next to the MCG, as I had done with you. And but she had this thing about I want to buy a flag. And so, I thought all right, fine, we'll go and-.

We got off there and they got off the station and the underpass that goes from where the railway, you know, platforms are goes under the railway lines to get to the side of the, you know, station that the football ground is on. They had stands, you know, tables up selling merchandise and so I said, oh, I'll go over and buy you a flag. No, no, I want to do it. And so, all right, well, here's your $5.

And she came back with a kangaroo's flag, and I went, oh, no. What am I going to do? This is, you know, little 3-year-old and you feel for her. She's stuffed up. How do I fix it? And I said, you can't sort of bite a little bit off that cake, you've just got to hoe in. So, I just said to her, well, what happened to the Bulldogs? And she said the Bulldogs were ugly, I like the Kangaroos better.

And so, she became a kangaroo supporter and, you know, kangaroos in her childhood and teenage years, the Kangaroos won two premierships. The Bulldogs did nothing. So...

Good choice.

Good choice. Yeah, she did well.

Far out. Wow. Anything else to mention footy-wise? Or is that it? Who won? Who was playing and who won?

Oh, yeah, well, the Bombers and the Dockers, my team, Essendon Football Club, because I'm a member, so I only go to see them play because I already paid to go and they were playing the Fremantle Dockers. So, the Purple Haze as...

Have they won any premiership yet?

No, they have not.

No, they have not.

No.

They're a relatively young team.

Relatively young. Yes. They've still got a while to go before they're likely to. They got to a grand final once, thoroughly beaten, but.

Why do you think Australian Rules football is seen as so confusing? Because surely there are plenty of other sports, like soccer apart that have got quite a few rules and everything. Or is it just that there are a lot of different rules?

Well, it's like no other game. It's a 360 degree game, which very few other games are, almost all other football type games are 180-degree games, so that you've got two teams opposing each other and one team's trying to go one way and the other teams trying to go the other way. And you don't go backwards. Whereas an Australian football, yes, your both, you know, teams are trying to get to one end.

So, you know, I'm kicking one way, you're kicking the other way. And we're, you know, trying to kick goals at opposite ends of the ground. But we can go anywhere we like, and all players can go anywhere on the field, except at the set up at the beginning where they sort of zone and you can only have particular number of plays in different areas, but. So, from the point of view of if you're used to watching those 180-degree games, it's just chaos.

You've got no idea what's going on. And because it's just so different- Other than Gaelic football is probably the closest to it.

Soccer's pretty similar in terms of the three dimensions or what, sorry, two dimensions, 360 degrees as opposed to a 180, like our rugby or- What is the American one called? American football. Yeah.

Yeah, it is a bit, but it's still, you know, when you look at a game, if you sort of take a snapshot of a game, literal photograph, you would have most of the players from one team at one end and most of the players on the other team at the other end facing each other. Whereas in Australian football, they're all over the field...

You've got spots. Right.

...At particular times, it would be very difficult to work out who was going in which direction.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, the last thing I guess I wanted to ask you about was, what do you think is going to happen in the future with the amount we're learning about head trauma?

Yeah.

And the effects it's having? Because you and I both watched an ABC series episode of You Can't Ask That, where they had ex-footballers and rugby players. And they were- One question was about like, are you scared about the- Well, I've forgotten what it's called. There's a certain acronym...

Post-concussion syndrome.

Yeah. Where you end up with effectively like a kind of Alzheimer's thing where you get brain damage from repeated knocks to the head. And it doesn't even have to be that you were knocked out. Right. It can just be collisions, which is why for soccer, I think in a lot of schools now, they've banned the header. So, you can't head the ball because apparently repeated-

Numerous repeated, you know, smacks of the ball with your head are actually potentially underlying this brain injury, as well.

And I think particularly with kids then, you know, that two kids going up trying to head the ball are more likely to bang their own heads together as well.

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, CTE.

There you go.

That's what it's called. So, my transcriber is going to love having to deal with that. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy. I can't even do it.

Head trauma.

CTE, CTE. Yeah. But yeah, so...

Yes. Well, you know, sports all over the world, contact sports all over the world now are concerned about it and they're all bringing- AFL has done it. Soccer is doing it, I watched the replay of the FA Cup final, you know, English soccer cup final yesterday, and there was a, you know, somebody went down with a...

Concussion or something.

...Well, a head injury, at least got knocked in the head and went down. And there's always that thing about soccer players as they'll take a dive when somebody sneezes at the other end of the field. But now they have a- And I wasn't aware of it in British football, but now they have a very similar thing to Australian football of as soon as there is a risk of concussion, basically the game stops.

Yeah.

You have, you know, medical people come out and, you know, checking the person on the field and then decide to take them off, rather than back in the old days it was, well, can you stand up? Yeah, right. Play on.

Well, and they were saying in this episode, one of them was saying, my grandfather said it's better to leave in the back of an ambulance than to step out of a contest. So, to avoid running into where the ball is, to contest it, to enter the contest with another player, if you avoid that because you're worried about getting injured, you know, shame on you. How embarrassing.

You should try and do that even if you fail and end up in an ambulance, at least you tried. Is that sort of a- Obviously that's going to have to go the way...

It's their macho thing of, you know, you're better off injuring yourself for the team than...

I think that's why I always hated- Not hated, but never really wanted to play football. I was like, I just am not going to blindly put myself in these positions to have neck injuries or head injuries or have my face smashed up.

Exactly.

Yeah.

I'll do Jiu-Jitsu instead.

Yeah, well, exactly. Yeah. Broken nose, cauliflower, yeah.

Great.

But you're less likely in Jiu-Jitsu to get concussion contact-based injuries.

Well, and that's- And again with MMA, I was like, yeah, nah. Fuck this, there's no chance. I- The amount of guys that I know who've had only a few concussions and you can already see that they've slowed down in terms of just how they can speak, and your just like, nah, nah, nah. Respect, but nah.

The old boxers, you know, who used back in my day...

Punch drunk.

...Used to just getting punch drunk, and just called them punchy.

Yeah.

Because they, you know, slurred their speech and...

Unless you're Floyd Mayweather who's never been knocked out.

Yeah, well, exactly. But again, you know, you look at, you know, this is a completely tangential topic, but you look at somebody like Floyd Mayweather and his last fight, he got 50 million US dollars to fight him, and he lost. So, just 50 million dollars to turn up. And you sit there and go...

Yeah.

...Why would you do the next one? He's- I think he's now the highest paid sports person ever...

No.

In terms of prize money, not sponsorship.

Yeah.

You know, I think, so in terms of, you know, actually winning money or getting paid directly to compete.

He's 44 years old and he's worth 1.2 billion dollars. Yeah.

So, why would he fight again?

Well, that's it. Your sort of like, what are you smoking?

Yeah exactly, so.

Insane. Anyway.

Yeah.

So yeah, you reckon the sports are going to- You reckon people will end up wearing helmets?

Well, there's- The helmet one, and again I'm- I am not a brain- A neurologist or a neurosurgeon. So, this is, you know, purely my opinion based on what I've read. But there seems to be a fair bit of controversy around whether helmets actually work or not.

Your brain's still moving inside the...

Your brain is still moving inside your head. It will stop you getting break injuries, like having somebody bang your head and you actually get a broken skull, but it's not going to stop the concussions necessarily. So, whereas the bigger, stronger helmet- Certainly the helmets they wear in AFL don't. They're basically just a leather, you know, reinforced leather helmet, you know, the bigger-

Effectively crash helmets on you, are you then prone to things like neck injuries and all sorts of things? So, I just think now people are- Sports are changing rules to protect the head, which is a good thing. People are a lot more aware of it now and that the old, you know, better off leaving in an ambulance than not going in for the ball mentality has changed.

And I think people now are saying, well, if there is a likelihood of a head injury, you're off. And AFL introduced it a few years ago of if there is any likelihood then it's automatically off the field for 20 minutes.

Yeah.

And, you know, you're getting assessed and then you can come back on again. And so, they introduced this idea if you can have a replacement for somebody who had a concussion, that the team shouldn't be disadvantaged by a medical problem.

Yeah.

And I think those sort of things are changing. Hopefully it will be better, and there's certainly now a lot of sports people, I know there's some American footballs, a couple of Australian footballs and things who have effectively donated their brains to neurological science when they die to say, you know, use me, test me, see what you can do.

And there's a new study being done now where all junior footballers in Victoria, I'm not sure if it's Australia wide, but all junior footballers in Victoria are being tested before a season starts, and any time they get a concussion during or a head knock or something, they'll be retested. And they're not just the, you know, what's your name and what day is it and where are you?

Sort of questions, they're actually psychomotor tests where you're actually having to, you know, cognitive test when you're answering questions, but you're also having to do things and, you know, can you do this complicated task?

And because you've got a pre-test beginning of the season and, you know, well, if you do worse than that, then there's a problem and you're not allowed to play again until you can match your pre-season score and doing those sort of things. So, we're getting a lot better in the world of understanding that the only alternative is just we don't play those sports.

I think the alternative is that you just sign a disclaimer. Like with- Well, I mean, we know with boxing, with MMA, that head trauma can cause- You can die.

Yeah.

People have died on the AFL field, maybe not necessarily in AFL, but they've played...

Football field...

...Dying that- Yeah, exactly. So, from neck injuries or brain injuries or whatever, it's like if you want to do it, at least be aware of the, you know, of what's going to happen.

Yeah, but...

And you can do it. Go for it.

Disclaimers are fine, but there is still a legal obligation on the organisers of, whether it be a sport or an industry or whatever else, to provide a safe workplace, which is a professional sport. That's what it is.

Yeah.

And so, I can sign a disclaimer and say I don't care, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I fully understand the risks and I shouldn't have to fully understand the risks. My employer is responsible for that. So, they've got, you know, partially that responsibility.

Do you ever wish that we could have gladiator's come back?

No.

Would you ever go? I reckon that would have been insane to watch.

Christians fighting lions.

Having Christians fighting other Christians.

Which they've been doing for 2,000 years.

I can't imagine what it would have been like to be in the Colosseum and seeing people literally replicating war in front of you and in an- For you in a safe way where you're not actually...

You have no risk.

Yeah, effectively. Assuming you're not in the front row, but...

Lions leap out of the enclosure.

...Just seems like, I mean, for them, it would have been such a normal thing because I imagine the average person, especially in the Roman period, would have been so used to going to war, to having relatives that died in war, fought in war, to knowing people who came back after the war, would have just been such a normal thing that, yeah, of course, you know, we can do this as entertainment as well in the gladiatorial arena.

And also, you had slaves and criminals and, you know, war captives that you just didn't give a crap about and thought, you know, get in there. If you live, you live.

Exactly.

Like I might as well make some money out of them, but- I just, yeah, it blows my mind to think about what that must have been like as both a competitor, because it would have been that, you know, MMA, it's kind of like- It's probably one of the sports, like with boxing, where it is, the maximum stakes are at, like you could die.

You could die.

But I think...

It's combat.

...The next step after that would be a gladiatorial thing where one of you must die for the other one to win effectively, like it didn't always happen that way. But that the- I can't imagine what that next level of risk would have changed about how it felt to watch, how it felt to participate. Must have been a very, very phenomenal- Phenomenally weird thing and crazy to watch.

A little bit barbaric for me.

Yeah.

Little bit is an understatement.

Well, you could have watched the chariot races. You could leave before the real blood sports begin...

The flag bearers come out on the horse, right I'm out of here.

Yeah, exactly. Anyway, hopefully you guys enjoyed this episode.

I have no idea what we were talking about...

AFL.

Bye.

Gladiators.

Alrighty, you mob. Thank you so much for listening to or watching this episode of The Goss'. If you would like to watch the video, if you're currently listening to it and not watching it, you can do so on the Aussie English Channel on YouTube. You'll be able to subscribe to that, just search Aussie English on YouTube.

And if you're watching this and not listening to it, you can check this episode out also on the Aussie English podcast, which you can find via my free Aussie English podcast application on both Android and iPhone. You can download that for free or you can find it via any other good podcast app that you've got on your phone. Spotify podcast from iTunes, Stitcher, whatever it is,

I'm your host, Pete. Thank you so much for joining me. I hope you have a ripper of a day, and I will see you next time. Peace.